[Novalug] speaking of wireless ...

Beartooth beartooth@Beartooth.Info
Thu Dec 12 14:58:52 EST 2013


On Wed, 11 Dec 2013, greg pryzby wrote:

> Is there a visual light on the machine to show if the wifi is turned
> on? There could be a hard switch and it is turned off.

 	I didn't see one.

> From a terminal (alt-f2 then xterm or gnome-terminal usually works if
> you don't know how to get one)
>   iwconfig
> and you should see something to help you figure out if the device is there
>   netstat -n -r
> while show networking info that can be helpful

 	I tried those, and followed my nose, and eventually got 
to a point where the network icon showed me two messages saying 
"Realtek .... Wifi is disabled by hardware switch." (The stuff 
represented by .... is different for each.)

 	Then I looked closer at the blue marks on various keys 
(this is a System76 netbook, called Starling iirc); these are all 
but invisible to me, and when I do get one turned on (by 
unintentionally pressing the fn key), I have an awful time 
blundering around trying to get it off again. But I managed to 
make out that F12 has something that might be a wireless symbol, 
and F11 has a very strange one that I suppose might be somebody's 
idea of an antenna.

 	Trying one permutation and combination after another, I 
did eventually get it to connect. Many many thanks!

> Right clicking on the WiFi icon in NetworkManager allows you to turn
> device on/off which could help.

> But I would check that the computer has turned on the wifi, that tends
> to be the issue.

 	I had already gotten into DD-WRT with my main PC and made 
sure wireless was on.

-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is.




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